Benefits

Corporate Partners

HP Enterprise Applied Innovation Project

Through the Haas@Work Applied Innovation course, HPE has partnered with Haas and its MBA students on multiple projects. Haas teams have worked on specific innovation opportunities, from exploring new business models to developing new programs to assist in internal change management.

In each case, roughly a dozen MBA students, faculty, and advisors spent four months working closely with an HPE team—applying an exploratory design-based innovation framework to uncover insights, and develop, model, validate, and advance novel and actionable ideas and solutions.

As HPE tells it: "Not only did the students deliver strong solutions that the HPE executives were excited to implement, but they also influenced how the executives think about the innovation process."

For partners, it is a productive way to develop fresh insights, kick start new initiatives, and explore new opportunities—while increasing engagement with Berkeley. For students, it provides a chance to do some hands-on design-thinking and strategic consulting work, learn from the partner companies, and demonstrate their skills and knowledge. As Haas instructor and program executive director Dave Rochlin notes, "We have several dozen corporate partners, many of whom have done multiple projects. Our emphasis on developing innovative leaders is a win for the companies, and our highly engaged partners are a win for the school."